


i'm going out of my mind

by blushandbooks



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/M, I HAVE SO MUCH TO WORK ON AND TWO (2) PEOPLE SAID THEY LIKED THIS IDEA SO I DID THIS INSTEAD, M/M, they are famous
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:26:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28236915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blushandbooks/pseuds/blushandbooks
Summary: julie and the phantoms does carpool karaoke with james corden. exactly as it sounds.
Relationships: Alex Mercer & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters, Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina/Luke Patterson, juke - implied, willex - implied
Comments: 32
Kudos: 318





	i'm going out of my mind

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sunsetswerv](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunsetswerv/gifts).



> FIRST: CARPOOL KARAOKE IS NOT MY OWN IDEA, IT IS A CREATION OF JAMES CORDEN AND THE PEOPLE WHO WORK ON HIS SHOW, THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH JAMES CORDEN. JAMES CORDEN IS A REAL PERSON AND NONE OF THIS IS DIRECTLY QUOTED FROM HIM. HE IS ~UNAFFILIATED~
> 
> second, in this universe, Julie and the Phantoms are like 20-21-22. 
> 
> third, inspired by the fic of the band doing a Wired Autocomplete Interview. 
> 
> enjoy!!!

_ The camera turns on: James Corden is sitting in his Range Rover, parked on a street in LA. His phone is held up to his ear as he makes a phone call.  _

“Hel- Hello? Hi! Are you ready?” He pauses as the party on the other line responds. “A few more minutes, okay, yeah. I’m sorry to rush you, I just-  _ I’m going out of my mind _ , you know? Los Angeles traffic is ridiculous and I don’t want to be late. Tell the boys to  _ wake up _ , even  _ if it’s all they do. _ ”

James smirks at the puns he’s made while a laugh track strikes after each knowing line. Eventually, something off-camera catches his eye -- and the passenger side door is opened to reveal Julie Molina, the lead singer of Grammy-nominated band Julie and the Phantoms. 

A cheering track plays at her entrance. 

“Hi James!” She beams, hopping in the car. She is wearing a yellow off-the-shoulder blouse with light-wash jeans and her hair tied into braids. 

“Good morning, Julie! I’m so glad you guys were able to carpool with me to work. Sometimes the drive gets so lonely, you know?”

“Actually, no,” Julie jokes. “It feels like I’m never in the car by myself anymore.”

“Really?”

“No.”

“You never are just driving alone, screaming the lyrics to your favorite song?”

“Well,” Julie grins, “whoever I’m with, we’ll probably do that anyways.”

“Right, right, because you’re in a band,” James practically deadpans, and Julie’s body is visibly shaking from how hard she is trying not to laugh already. She barely fights through a little “yeah” as a response before James continues. “Speaking of those phantoms, where are they? I thought you’d all be together, unless-” James peaks over his shoulder to the empty backseat- “Unless they’re there, and they’re  _ actually _ phantoms.”

“Unfortunately, no,” Julie shakes her head. “Sometimes I wish. But they’re inside, fighting over who gets to wear the black Vans.”

“They’re- They’re fighting over shoes?”

“Yeah. And I’m the one wearing them, so let’s see how long it takes them to figure that one out.”

Another laugh track sounds out while Julie and James, in a completely scripted manner, turn to look out of the car windows to check if there is any sight of the boys. There isn’t. 

“Well, since we’re waiting, would you mind if I put on the radio?”

Julie shakes her head, fighting an amused grin. 

“No, for sure! Go ahead. I’d love some music.”

And when the familiar chords of  _ Wake Up _ blare through the car, Julie is already moving her hands as if the piano is right in front of her. 

The ride has begun. 

\--

Once Wake Up lets out it’s final note and James is busy praising Julie Molina’s voice, one of the backseat passenger doors opens and the boisterous screaming of twenty-something boys is filling the car. 

“Window! I repeat, I need a window seat!”   
  
“Alex, there’s two window seats-”

“Yes, and I need one of them! God!”

Alex is settled in the seat behind Julie while the bassist and guitarist begin to pile in as well. 

“Julie, you- F***, Reggie, just go in in front of me next time! Julie,” Luke recenters his focus from his best friend currently crawling across his lap to sit in the middle, “you took the Vans.”

“I did.”

“Well why didn’t you say anything when we were all arguing about the Vans?” Alex pipes in, buckling his seatbelt with his bandmates as James observes the conversation play out with entertained confusion. 

“Why did it take you fifteen minutes to realize I had them on?”

The boys, while usually armed with a comeback, can’t fight Julie’s defense. Especially because it’s coming from Julie. 

James cranes his neck to look at all of them in the car, and asks:

“Is it always like this?”

Four variations of  _ “yes” _ are heard simultaneously from each band member. 

\--

“I am so fascinated with you all,” James starts after the shot cuts to them clearly driving in the car. “You start out as a high school garage band, and now you’re nominated for five Grammys with your second album.”

With pride, the band’s responses vary: Julie with a grateful smile, Alex with a bashful nod, Reggie with a sunshine grin and Luke with a cocky smirk. 

“I know! It’s still so unbelievable. There’s people who have come to see our sold-out stadium shows that were there when we played the Orpheum as teenagers,” Reggie bursts with excitement. 

“Unbelievable, I agree,” James nods. “And correct me if I’m wrong -- but you didn’t originally form the band with Julie?”

“Stupid of them, I know,” Julie responds, sending a playful look back to Luke. His blush is barely noticeable. 

“Hey, we eventually came around,” the guitarist responds. “And we’re lucky we did. We were originally in a band with another guy who was our rhythm guitarist. When he left, I started writing new stuff, and we wanted a new sound -- and one day, I heard this voice coming from the music room.”   
  


“Shut up, and it was Julie?”   
  
(The grin that spreads across Luke’s face as he stares at the girl in the passenger seat will later go viral on Twitter.)

“It was Julie,” he sighs. “She was a junior, and we were all seniors, and we didn’t know her that well, but-”

“But Luke followed her like a puppy until she agreed to at least consider hanging out with us for an hour and listen to us play,” Alex finishes with an honest tone. Luke pouts at the drummer. 

“I did not-”

“You did,” everyone in the car, save for James and Luke, confirms. 

“Well,” James starts, wanting to continue with the karaoke portion of carpool karaoke, “to honor that, I think we should play something a little familiar.”

After fiddling with the radio, the sound of the first single off of their first EP is filling the car, and everyone present begins to harmonize to  _ Bright. _

\--

A while later, the car is jamming to  _ Finally Free _ \-- which everyone in the band agrees will always be a personal favorite of theirs from their first full album. At the bridge, tension rises when Reggie suddenly yells:

“Wait wait wait, everyone shut up,  _ this is the part!” _ _  
_   
Reggie’s abrupt screaming takes James clearly by surprise, but Julie and Luke share a knowing (and flirtatious?) smile. Julie is quick to curl her hand in a fist in front of her mouth to fake a microphone, and-

“I got a spark in me,” she sings, then extending her fist to Luke. 

“I got a spark in me,” he echoes. 

“And you’re a part of me!”

“And you’re a part of me-” Reggie and Alex both cheer after this part, causing James’s face to contort with confusion. That is clearly going to get brought up when they are done. 

“Now ‘till eternity,”

“Now ‘till eternity!”   
  


_ “Been so long and now we’re finally free!” _

The song ends in another minute, and the band plus James are clearly out of breath from the high energy in the song. No one in the car was holding back for that one. 

“Okay, wait, I have a question,” James interjects. “Reggie, what the heck were you screaming about at the bridge? Is there something important about that?”

Alex answers instantaneously. 

“It’s very near and dear to our heart. When we performed it live for the first time at this open mic night, Julie and Luke were sharing the microphone, and that was the moment that we knew Luke was into her.”

James lets out a giddy gasp, looking at Julie -- he would look at Luke too, but he’s obviously still trying to pay attention to the road. 

“Really? That was the night Luke fell in love with you?”   
  
In the back, Luke can be seen with his head in his hands. Julie can’t stop giggling. 

“I didn’t actually notice it at the time, but the guys catalog it as such.”

“And when do you think you fell in love with him?”

Julie rolls her lips together as she steals a glance back at Luke. 

“I would like to say I was a little more gradual -- but my senior year, we did have a garage party where we performed  _ Great _ and he kind of attacked me.”

The car erupts with laughter, the only pouting party being Luke. James prods more. 

“Attacked you how?”

Reggie nudges Luke urgently with his shoulder, and a small smile appears on the guitarist’s face as his embarrassment waivers. 

“He just did all of this stuff that we definitely did not rehearse but it was so cute I really couldn’t handle it,” Julie explains. “There’s this part, at the bridge, where it’s only supposed to be me singing, but he came in with his guitar and basically sang the lyrics back to me that way.”

Something clicks behind James’ eyes when Julie mentions her and Luke’s guitar duet, and he doesn’t hesitate to jump in when she completes her sentence. 

“And that’s how you guys ended up recording it!”

“Yeah, it is! And then just at the end, when I’m flying solo on my piano again, he came and sat next to me on the piano bench and he had the audacity to get so close that I thought he was going to kiss me.”

“Did he?”

_ “No!” _ Julie and Luke exclaim in unison -- Julie with annoyance, Luke with insistence. “I would have never done that in front of so many people, Jules, you knew that,” he continues. 

“Oh well,” Julie sighs. “A girl can dream.”

At her words, Luke looks completely and utterly disoriented.

“Excuse me, you don’t have to dream-”

The editing cuts him off there.

\--

“Julie, you just gave me so many song ideas that I don’t know what to play next.”

“Well, what are the options?” Alex pipes in from the back, wrapping his hand around the corner of Julie’s seat to pull himself forward. 

“What Julie was just saying made me want to play either  _ Edge of Great  _ or  _ Flying Solo _ ,” James explains. The entire band practically howls upon hearing the second option. 

“ _ Flying Solo _ first, just to take it back,” Reggie insists. “That is a _ classic!” _

\--

“Wait, you guys,” Alex says at the beginning of the next cut, “how did I not catch this before? James, you’re wearing our merch.”

Gasps and “awe’s” emit from the rest of the band as James animatedly complains about their lack of noticing. 

The shirt is solid black with four cartoon ghosts across the chest -- one with a small butterfly on it with a purple microphone, one with a beanie and red guitar, one with a pink fanny back and drumsticks, and the last one with a bass guitar and a red flannel. 

“Alex’s mega talented boyfriend designed those!” Luke bursts with the information as Alex blushes. “Willie. He’s an awesome artist. He designs everything from our merch to album covers, and even helps Flynn plan some of the stage lights and set stuff for our shows.”

“No way,” James deadpans, holding the fabric of his shirt in his left hand. “You guys might be the new it-squad of the music industry. And who is this Flynn? Julie, didn’t you mention that  _ Flying Solo _ is about her?”

“Flynn is amazing,” Julie begins. “We are with a management company, but she is part management, part PR, part costume designer for our concerts, she manages our socials…”

“I think you forgot she’s your best friend,” Reggie quips.

“Our best friend!” Alex insists, frowning at the bassist. Reggie apologizes and makes the correction. 

“My bad,” Julie drones, “she’s just a superhuman and I forget her powers easily. We were best friends all through high school, and when I joined the band, she did too, in her own way.”

“We wouldn’t have made it off the ground floor as quickly as we did without her!” Luke chimes in from the back, and everyone hums in agreement. 

“So she definitely deserved to have a song about her, then?” James asks with completely faked doubt. 

_ “Definitely.” _

\--

“Okay, we have to talk about your second album,” James comments, twisting the wheel to turn a corner. “There is so much to unpack. Julie and Luke, you two fueled the social media speculation about your relationship with  _ Perfect Harmony _ only to come out as a couple the next day, you have a song called  _ Sunset Swerve _ which I find to be an absolute pop masterpiece, and Julie, you credit your mom as the songwriter for  _ Wake Up. _ And don’t even get me started on  _ Stand Tall _ . My wife is getting sick of listening to me belt it in the shower.”

“‘A lot to unpack,’ God, you weren’t kidding,” Reggie quips.

“It’s not my fault you made a flawless album, Julie and the Phantoms!” As the band laughs, trying to be humble but proud, James continues. “Album of the year, best pop vocal album, best pop group performance, and two nominations for record of the year for  _ Stand Tall _ and  _ Wake Up _ . And I wouldn’t be surprised if you walked away with four trophies -- only because you can’t win both for song of the year. But you get it.”

“It’s been a whirlwind,” Julie confirms, “the critics have responded really well. But we are nominated up against some other really talented artists, like Dirty Candi-”

“Who never fails to produce pure bops!” Alex adds from the back. 

“Yes, exactly. But we are just so excited to have this recognition so early, and we can’t wait to just see how far we can go.” 

“You guys are looking at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, that’s how far you can go,” James tells them, surprisingly insistent. “I really do want to get into  _ Perfect Harmony _ , though, because you just released the music video yesterday and  _ oh my God _ -”

As James becomes flustered at the thought of the _ Perfect Harmony _ video, laughter rings out from the band. Another confidential grin is shared between Julie and Luke. 

“Like, I’m sorry, but how dare you two!” James continues. “The lights, the looks, the choreo -- it was perfect. No pun intended.”

“It was really fun to film,” Luke nods his head. “I mean, I’m not a dancer, but Julie is amazing at everything, obviously, so she made it really easy. The choreographer had a bit of a time trying to find what moves fit me best, trust me, there were some moves I never want to think of again--”

“Wait,” Julie interrupts, giggling like someone is tickling her relentlessly. “The worm?”

“We agreed never to bring up the worm again, Jules!”   
  
Julie only cackles harder; overpowering James’ annoyed questioning about the “worm” that is sending Julie into a delirious state. Nobody tells him. 

\--

After a romantic duet -- occasionally interrupted by a kidding James -- between Julie and Luke, the next topic is approached. 

“Okay, really quick, one of my favorite songs from the album is Sunset Swerve. I need to know, for the sake of my sanity, where in the world that name came from.”

“It’s what Julie called our band when we first talked to her about joining,” Reggie answers first because the story is his favorite. “We were called Sunset Curve, and she called us Sunset Swerve because we were annoying her, and--” The bassist laughs at the memory. “I remember correcting her by moving my hand in the shape of a half-circle, like to physically show her somehow that we were the  _ curve _ and not the  _ swerve _ ? It’s so dumb to think about now, but I think it’s hilarious.”

The rest of the band smiles and attests to the amusing picture painted by Reggie, and James’ jaw drops lower than they even thought possible with the news. 

“And you guys turned it into one of the pop anthems of the decade?” He asks, to which everyone nods, dead serious. “Wow. Just wow. The power you hold.”

Reggie mockingly bows and thanks James for the praise as his band laughs at the antics. The edit cuts to James questioning them further:   
  


“And before we talk about Stand Tall, which I want to save for last, I want to quickly ask you, Julie, about Wake Up. When did your mum write it, and why did you decide to have it on the album? Was your mum also a singer, or…?”

“So, she passed away when I was fifteen,” Julie begins. James does not hesitate to offer his condolences. “She was the person who I really got my love of music from, and after she died, I distanced myself from music for a really long time. I got removed from the school music program because I couldn’t perform. But then, I was going through her things, and I found a song she wrote me before she died.  _ Wake Up _ is the song, and it’s what I sang for the first time since her death to get into the music program again, and it’s the song that Luke heard in the hall.”

“It was only fitting to put it on this album,” Luke jumps in. “It was a really big project for us, and the guys and I agreed that we wanted Julie to record it because it’s really such an amazing song.”

“That is so amazing,” James comments when they are finished. “Every song on this album, I feel like, has so much story and life behind it and I feel it every time I listen.”

“That was the plan,” Reggie responds. This time, the smiles on the band’s faces are blatantly prideful. They’re allowed to acknowledge that their album is powerful. 

\--

Following the last cut, the five of them are jumping into a highly-anticipated conversation: The story behind Stand Tall. 

“Shockingly,” Alex starts, “the story behind that one isn’t as concrete.”

“Well....” Reggie trails off, and Julie sends a look to Luke, and he picks up. 

“It’s a combination of things, but there is a more concrete moment behind it, I guess.” James nods for Luke to continue. “Julie had started writing it with her mom.”

“Oh, my God,” James mumbles, and everyone gives a sad nod. 

“Yeah. And we planned to do something with it, but we didn’t know what, so it went undeveloped for a while. And then one night, we were supposed to have a set at our high school’s homecoming, and me and the boys got food poisoning.”

_ “Food poisoning?” _

“We wish it was a joke,” Alex sighs, shaking his head. “We got street dogs for dinner before the dance. It feels so dumb to talk about, but we almost died. Like, it wasn’t just some uncooked meat -- this guy was pulling the dogs from his car engine.”

“Shut. Up.” 

“And for the record,” Luke interjects, “this was not our first time eating these hotdogs! We had probably gone to this guy like, five other times. And this one night, he completely botched the dogs, and we were in the hospital for three days.”

“Wait, but where was Julie?”

“At the dance,” Julie takes over. “I thought they stood me up.”

James is rendered speechless, with small sounds coming from his mouth here and there before he finally explodes as he slaps his hands against the steering wheel. 

“You guys have the craziest stories!” He exclaims. “And you’re so young! I can’t imagine what you’ll be telling me in 20 years!”   
  
“God, I don’t even want to think about that.” Reggie clutches his stomach like he’s reliving it. 

“Anyways,” Luke continues, “when Jules came to visit me in the hospital, we worked on it. But we never prioritized it for our first projects because we always felt like we wanted to put it somewhere bigger. We held onto it for awhile, and the second we started talking about all of our ideas for album number two, Stand Tall came back out and got a little more polished before we finally got around to recording it.”

“And now it has a Grammy nom,” James finishes. Luke nods. 

“And now it has a Grammy nom.”

“It’s definitely one of my favorite songs we’ve ever done.” Julie confirms, looking behind her at the boys. “Reggie and Alex’s solos get me every time. I loved watching them record in the studio.”

“It is, truly, a magnificent song, you guys,” their driver insists. “And since we’ve spent all of this time talking about it, I am dying to listen to it.”

The cheers of the band are all that James needs to press play, and they shred their vocal chords to match the energy of the song. 

(Anyone watching will feel the same hype as a concert with thousands of fans in the small car with five people.)

\--

“Well guys,” James says after the song, “we’ve arrived.”

The shot cuts briefly outside of the car to show the sign on the studio lot: The Late Late Show with James Corden. 

“Thank you so much for the ride, James!” Julie says first, the rest of the band’s thank-yous following hers. “We’ll see you tonight, right?”

Anyone could see in James’ sweet smile that he holds genuine love for the artists around him. 

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

**Author's Note:**

> 1) the vans thing is from the fact that charlie and mads wear identical vans in a lot of the bts videos i see and it kills me  
> 2) stand tall supremacy  
> 3) i couldn't not include the worm  
> 4) i just yearn to one day see maddie and her himbos in the car with james corden and singing


End file.
